Coffee Has a Positive Influence on Gout Risk

Wouldn’t it be a dream come true if coffee consumption possibly helped reduce the risk of gout?

Gout is a form of arthritis that more commonly affects men, especially between the ages of 40 and 50, than women. High uric acid blood test results could indicate the condition, in which case patients would be treated to lower the levels. Previous research has analyzed coffee’s impact on serum uric acid, but the findings have been conflicting.

Researchers from Korea took a stab at uncovering the correlation in the first systematic analysis of its kind published in Seminars in Arthritis & Rheumatism. The team reviewed nine studies totaling 175,310 participants between 1999 and 2014.

It turns out that one cup of coffee a day or more had a significant association with a reduced risk of gout. Serum uric acid levels were significantly lowered when women drank four to six cups a day and when men drank one to three. Therefore, it appears that women need to consume more coffee in order to reap the same gout preventive benefits as men.

“Based on our study, moderate coffee intake might be advocated for primary prevention of hyperuricemia and gout in both genders,” the authors confirmed. They did not touch on why coffee has this impact, but the analysis was presented at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in San Francisco in November.